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God Moves Towards Us

S (Scripture): Luke 22:66 When day came, the council of the elders of the people gathered together, both the chief priests and the experts in the law. Then they led Jesus away to their council 67 and said, “If you are the Christ, tell us.” But he said to them, “If I tell you, you will not believe, 68 and if I ask you, you will not answer. 69 But from now on the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” 70 So they all said, “Are you the Son of God, then?” He answered them, “You say that I am.” 71 Then they said, “Why do we need further testimony? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!”

O (Observation): Jesus throws out a lot of powerful statements here to show the authority he has.

The guards think they have the upper-hand, but then Jesus reverses the scenario when he states that “the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the power of God.” Those guards are put in their place; Jesus is the one sitting on the judgment seat.

When they want to know if Jesus is the Son of God he responds, “You say that I am.” Jesus doesn’t think they are on the same page, and so perhaps Jesus was not giving a denial, but was giving a qualified positive response: “You have said it, but I do not quite mean what you think.” Regardless, the Sanhedrin take this response as pure blasphemy. My commentary says:

They saw it as blasphemous to claim such intimacy and shared authority with God, a claim so serious and convicting that no further testimony was needed

A (Application): Interesting that, today, we make make some very similar claims as Jesus: we are God’s sons and daughters. We don’t feign at this claim. Indeed, we embrace it!

As baptized sons and daughters, we are brought into a relationship with God that is grace-filled and unending. Perhaps, some might even consider it blasphemous. Many denominations consider baptism something that marks your faith steps towards God. My belief, however, points us to a God that appreciates our steps forward in faith, but a God who nonetheless knows we will fail…and so steps forward on our behalf.